"A [preacher] who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they are necessarily reflected in his [preaching]." — BXVI

28 May 2014

Much more to tell. . .

Jesus
dumps a lot of Truth on the disciples in his farewell address. There's
lots of room in heaven. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Believe in me and the do the works that I do. Mine is the only name
under heaven that can save you. Love me, one another, and keep my
commandments. Remain in my word and ask for what you need. The world
hates you b/c it hated me first. You are no longer slaves but
friends. I am sending you the Advocate will who convict the world of
its wickedness. That's a lot of Truth to take in at the dinner table!
Then Jesus drops this little bomb on his friends, “I have much more
to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.” There's more?! Indeed.
Much more. And you cannot bear the weight, the burden of knowing it
all at once. How will the disciples learn what Jesus has yet to tell
them? He says, “. . .the Spirit of truth [. . .] will guide you to
all truth.” And when he speaks, “He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things
that are coming.” Can we—in 2014—bear up under what the Spirit
of Truth has to teach us?

Let's
see. While loading us up with the Truth, Jesus sweetened the deal
with just as many promises. Not one of those promises included a vow
to leave us with a comfortable, middle-class, suburban religion; or a
complex, intellectually satisfying system of wisdom; or a workable
economic/political agenda for fair wealth distribution. He promises
those who follow him persecution, arrest, trial, torture, execution,
and the world's unrelenting hatred. He also promises eternal life. .
.but that comes after the persecution and death part. I'm reminding
us of these unhappy truths b/c the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate, was
sent to the apostles so that the Church could be born, born in fire
and wind and speaking many tongues all at once. Many tongues,
speaking the same truth: repent, turn to God, and receive His mercy.
Preaching to the pagans in Athens, Paul, says, “God has overlooked
the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere
repent because he has established a day on which he will judge the
world with justice. . .” Can we bear up under the promise that
divine judgment is coming? Is this a truth we are ready to hear?
Ready or not. . .as they say.

We
could spend the next decade dissecting scripture, magisterial
documents, and papal teaching, searching for what “divine judgment”
really means. Does it mean that each soul faces God's judgment after
death? Does it mean the violent apocalypse that our evangelical
brethren love to write novels about? But these are questions for
leisure moments. Right now – as Pope Francis is fond of reminding
us – the Spirit of Truth is revealing Christ's heart to his Church
just as he revealed it Paul on the Areopagus in Athens: the era of
ignorance has ended and the proclamation of the Father's mercy has
been made. The worship of idols—money, power, fame, violence,
influence, intellect – these idols and our worship of them cannot
bring us to God. The Spirit of Truth reveals even now that we live
and move and have our being in God, and to offer our love – itself
a gift from God – to the passing things of this world is like
tossing an anchor in sand. Loving things feels weighty but there's
nothing there to hold the anchor, nothing there to stop us from
drifting with the deadly tides. Christ promises eternal life to those
who love him and will follow him. To the cross, the grave, and on to
feasting table in heaven. He bears our sins; therefore, listen to the
Spirit of Truth: repent, receive His mercy, and return to
righteousness.

1 comment:

Thanks - I thought this was a good, solid, homily. There was a section near the end of the second paragraph which, when I listened this morning, confused me a bit - but once I read it the confusion was cleared up. I really liked the image of the anchor in the sand - perfect way to describe "anchoring" ourselves to the things of the world.